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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times-Advocate, 1941-10-30, Page 7THE EXETER T1MES-ADV0CATE THl'llSKAY, OCTOISUJI 2Srt, Verne Harness Writes from England w England, Sept. 23, 1941 Pear Melve; I thought I would drop you a line or two to thank you for the Exeter Times-Advocat© which you have so kindly sent me sq regularly. I sure would miss the local paper if it sud­ denly stopped coming, I read it from cover to cover, It is surprising how quickly one will get-away from the local happenings, even when one does receive the paper,. While go­ ing ovex* the locals I run acrctes a lot of names of people whom I cannot remember knowing or see­ ing while I lived in Exeter. I un­ derstand there are quite a number of people leaving town to work in munition plants here and there, I notice that one of your men is- in hospital again, Archie sure has had quite a time of it, hasn’t he? If you can get his address and give it to 'Elmore I will drop him a line sometime. Everything is quiet over here at present. There is an odd raid on some of the larger cities and ship­ ping docks here and there but where We are stationed back in the coun­ try it is seldom nowadays that ye even heai’ a siren. Last Sunday morning at about one o'clock, while on guard was the first alert I havd* heard in months. About a year ago now it was- not unusual to hpar seven or eight in twenty-four hours, but during that year the tables have been reversed entirely^ It is nothing to gee' sixty to seventy of our planes hiking off toward Germany oi’ German occupied ter- ritory at any hour of the day and one can hear them still plying back and forth almost continually dur­ ing the night as well. I have been getting a great deal of experience in farming this sum­ mer. For about two months now I have been spending evenings, Sundays and even my last seven- day leave in that occupation. I have done a great deal of hoeing, First it was mangolds, then it was kale. Then I received promo­ tion to shocking “corn”, as- all grain is called -in this country. We had a wonderful crop of wheat but the oats were a failure. They were so tall and heavy that about sev­ enty percent of it went down flat and we had an awful time cutting it. They do things, a great deal differently over here than they do at home. The hired men on * the farm I worked on Went all around the field of oats with a sickle and cut quite a w$th and bound it by . ’ hand. They don’t go in much for a scythe over heye for some un­ known reason. As thp grain was so flat we had ,to go in front of the binder with forks and turn the grain back towards the knives. Even then it • was tied very badly and when it came time to shock.it we sure had a grand job on our hands. To top all this extra trouble it rained every day for a couple or three weeks and we turned the shocks several times, but to no avail. Eventually we had to cut and spread it to dry enough to draw .it to the stack. In the meantime about a half of it had started to sprout badly. At last we- got it drawn to the stack but with so much handling the grain was nearly all out of it. ■ • We had quite a time with the horse- beans too. They are . very much like our broad beans at home. They had ‘several acres and first of all the thistles were so bad in them that we had to go through the lot and cut the thistles out. One small corner of the field was ex­ ceptionally bad' and they cut them *■ with the mower. My next job was to pick the beans out from amongst the ^thistles and bind them in bundles with binder twine. It sure was an amusing process. Here I was going along with a little wood­ en rake (about the size of a child’s toy one), sorting the beans from amongst the thistles. One thing I notice very much is the way they save every' bit of grain possible. After the beans were cut by the binder we went all over the field and picked up what was too short to catch in the bundles' or the ones that were not cut at all. It took quite a length of time but it is SO hard to obtain feed fol’- stock that these people save every pouiid pos­ sible. The chap I worked for said ’that they never grew horse beans in peace time but as feed was so hard to get they had tried them and found them a fairly good Sub­ stitute for some feeds not obtain­ able. They grind them into a sort of meal. I imagine they are some­ thing albng the line of the soya bean.The highlight of the farming and the hardest experience gained was the job of trimming hedges. I don’t know if you ever had ■ the pleasure of visiting England cr not, Melve, but if so you will know how extensively they grow hedges over here, one seldom sees a fence at all. Now, as you know, i am not one to complain a great deal, but I certainly wondered why they grew hedges with so many thorny bushes in them. By the end of my first hour’s labour iny hands had more thorns In them than a dog has fleas and I silt'd lost my temper and a bit of blood aS Well. I can advise anyone who is thinking of taking up this particular job to go slow and easy until they get a bit of very necessary experience. It is all cut with a sickle, too. One has a small rake to pull the branches out. so as to be able to cut them, but I seemed to get tangled up somehow 9just the same, At least there was one redeeming feature about the affair, The hired men with whom I was working got a good laugh at my expense. One of the last jobs 4 was on was quite peculiar * too in compari­ son to the way it is done in Can­ ada, I was helping with the silage. They do not use corp pr pea sil­ age like they mostly do around Exe­ ter. It is all second tutting of hay. What We cut was very short and it was necessary to rake every bit of it by hand. This time the scene changed a trifle, Instead of the usual small wooden rake I was handed a real man-sized wooden one. I put in a full* ten hour^ one day doing nothing else but raking. The silo we were putting this into was being erected as the work pro­ gressed., The material for the silo consisted of some wire, much like our fence wire at home but much heavier. It was rounded in­ to a 'circle about the size of a sjlo and the ends wired together. In­ side of this it was lined with a very heavy tar paper ‘ and had long stakes- driven into the ground on the inside on which to tie the second storey. They put some salt ev.ery so many inches and wet it with water ^besides putting a certain amount/of molasses with it. I hap­ pened to see some of it this spring that was made in the fall of 1940 and it was very good looking stuff. /According to these folks they use very little silage in peace time. They depend almost entirely on imported feeds but with shipping space at. a premium it is impossible to import enough. I have not run across any Of the Exeter boys except Jack Brintnell, Of course I see Jake Lindenfield, Red Hunter and Bill Servent repl often but the other boys are very hard to locate. ‘ Jack. Brintnell was stationed a very short distance from me for some “.months- before he located me. There are so many Un­ its that unless one actually knows what unit a person is in it is al­ most impossible to locate them. Just to give you an idea of how things are rationed to civilians over here, I received a ration card when I went on my last leave, the one I spent oh the farm, , I had nev­ er cashed one personally before and I went trotting to the store to get the rations that were 'to keep me for a whole week, I went to the gro­ cer’s first,, and was allowed sugar, butter, fnargarine, tea and bacon. The lddy put up the order and hand­ ed it to me, and honestly I -almost fainted. I could have quite easily put it in one of my trouser pock­ ets. The whole order amounted to one shilling eight pence half pen­ ny. In our money that is forty-one cents. On top of this one must re­ member that most things are dear­ er than in Canada so. you can im­ agine what amount of each article I received when the grand total was'forty-one cents. I went from there to the butcher’s and received my ration of meat for the week which is one shilling two pence worth per adult per week. I took stewing beef in order to get as large a quantity as possible and it amounted to just one pound. * Im­ agine a farmer at home living on a pound of meat a week. I just .don’t know how these chaps can get along and work* the hours they do. They .work on an average of fourteen hours a day in midsummer on account of the scarcity of help. The same British spirit is amongst the farmers as is in the Army, Navy, Air Force, munition workers, and in fact, everyone over here. They just tighten the belt a bit and grin and bear it.' Everyone seems to take it'for granted that they have their own little individual part to play in’ this fight for freedom and to help rid the world of such "brutes as Hitlei’ and Company, So they just carry on and do very little cbm-' plaining. I sure admire their pluck for their taxes are high and living is high, but nothing seems to crush their spirits. I suppose with the new airport being built on the second con'ces- sion Exeter Will be booming. It will be quite a change, to, Jiave so many planes flying around Ml the time When things get going pro­ perly. We certainly see plenty of them over here and now that the R.A.F, have been strengthened so much it isn't Nazi planes we see, either, I guess I had better 'quit this for now,’ I have been rambling on and on and soon yotx will be wondering if I will never quit, Cheerio^and all the best. Thanking you again for the Exeter Timhs-Advocat&v I remain sincerely, Verne Harness . ....~V—...— • PREMISES RAIDED In a raid on premises about a mile south of Exeter by the Brovin* cial and 'County Police On Tuesday, October 21st, a -quantity of liquor, is said to have been seized. "1 I ITORI AL Got those storm windows on? * ♦ # .♦ # # -s •# ■Just listen to the hum of business in this good town. • • ♦ # ♦ * • < Moscow is doing a job that is away beyond all praise. What of North America? And why do we hear no more of those perfervid radio appeals to save gasoline? * * # !* * * * * Those rains came just in time to put the land into fine condi- tion for the local plowing matches, * * * £ We’re buying only necessary things these- days. If we did otherwise our credit would soon be exhausted. * « # 4 *• Some of those young fellows who got out of the army and into the flying corps find themselves rather busy. * ♦ ♦ ♦ * * ♦ The courage and inventiveness and resourcefulness and the stick-to-it-iveness of those Russians is beyond all praise. * • .«» * * * * We are exhorted at every turn to do an all-out job in behalf; work. Too many are still in the strutting stage of the task. This price-fixing legislation is not perfect by any means. The * theory has much to commend it, but will it stand the test of practice? ♦ * * * » * * * Those young men who excel in plowing are real nation-buil­ ders. The young man who does excellent plowing.is master of a num­ ber of good things. • * iti » a * * » • ' Uncle Sam is not enjoying the entertainment Hitlei’ is offering him iiy the way of pulling out a few of his ichin whiskers. The old gentleman is a marvel of patience, <■ * * • • • * ■ * There’ll be some lively scurrying about these days- on the part of some folk to get deeply in (debt before the law of the land will protect them against their -own bad business methods. *«*.*.***/* It is too bad'when a country advantaged with homes an-d schools and churches and universities finds itself obliged to appoint five thousand workers to protect its citizens against their own folly. «*'««***« THOSE STRAWS In the good old days when pigs were pigs their swineships were . fairly.good forecasters of foul weather. This prognosticating they accomplished by rushing wildly about carrying mouthfuls of straw to their beds. The pigs acted wisely and honorably by so doing. They read the signs of the times correctly and provided accordingly. Lately- the government of this 'Dominion has been noting the con- , duct of some of its citizens and read the- signs as indicating that thei. present war will not spon .be over. . They see (Certain people rushing • about in the evil of racketeering and profiteering. By an all-roUnd regulation of all prices the government hopes to see that no one suffers unduly. . i♦ * * * # ♦ . * * HOW WOULD THIS DO? Canadians are willing to do their best in the way of financing ’ . the war, Their actions have demonstrated this fact. However there is a class who find themselves unable to buy war certificates. We refer, of course, to the folk who have retired from active busi- 1 ne’ss life on an income that they, believed- would 'See-’them through.. Just now these good people find that the increased cost of living has seriously upset their plans. Already their income has shrunk by something like fifteen per cent. Where they thought they had one hundred dollars to keep the wolf off the mat they have but eighty- - five dollars. The difference between one hundred dollars and eighty-five dollars is a tormenting affair when one hundred dollars was scarcely enough. These people have a little principal that they would gladly loan the government were their interest not de- \ ferred- .People of seventy-five do not deal in future interest. In these circumstances could not the Dominion government issue a special war loan bond at the-same rate of interest offered the pur- ■ chaser of the wai’ savings certificates? We believe that this war loan may be negotiated out of such savings as we have mentioned. WE HAD BETTER BELIEVE IT This country is at war, though some'people act as if it were not. And the issue of the war is not the dead sure thing that some would have us .believe. The war is. not an election. It is not a horserace. But it has the uncertainty of both. What is needed this minute if the uncertainty of the issue ■ is to be removed is -an abundance of both men and money. # The men are enlisting but thousands upon thousands of men are urgently needed. Proud we are to Say that the young meh are coming forward, and a- fine lot they are. *' Some are saying, “We’re not worrying. We have our land and our real 'estate. They’ll see us through.” But if Hitler pushes King George into discard, Hitler will have all the land and all the bonds and- real estate men and their present owners Will be whist­ ling up the wind as they ruefully stand holding the bag. “But,” argues sturdy John thrift, “my money’s in the bank. No one can touch it there.” But if Hitler tells us what to do, we’ll find that ■he holds all our cash while we have nothing but the smell of an' onion to feed us and the skin of a gooseberry for our clothing and housing-.# « * * * * * ♦ A GREAT EXPERIMENT♦The action Of the Dominion government in priefe-fixing in all phases is an effort to protect 'Canadians against their own folly. Conditions during and following the last great war show how citi­ zens are almost sure to blunder into loss and misery when left to their own ways of doing things. Under the evil way of allowing the man with the keenest brain and the least conscience and the hardest elbows to get while .he had the power and to keep what he could control, resulted in untold injury to the commonwealth. A great many fear that there is a nigger in nearly every fin­ ancial woodpile. Special interests never have been over-diffident or over-scrupulous about pressing their special claims, meanwhile drumming suggestively on the ballot box and squinting at the party war chest. Of course the drumming has not been loud, nor do the tax-paying public hear it, .bitt'it is going on. The squinting has not been for anything but private consumption but that did not render it the less effective. When the storm raised by the Joy Oil Co. clears away we’ll be able to see whether or not the interests rule this country and we’ll be able to say whether the present legislation is all that it appears to be on the surface." The more thoroughly a law is enforced, the more clearly will citizens know its real nature. * * w ♦ * ♦ * * WHO’LL PAY THE PIPER? IFive thousand workers, it is alleged, will be required to ad minister the price regulating and wage fixing legislation now under contemplation. That means five thousand more hands finding their way to the public till. That will mean, too, that the producers/ of this country will be required to keep a stream of kopecks or some such good stuff hopping merrily government till-ward. The music supplied by that merry old gentleman, the piper, must be paid for. We wait with interest the outcome of the situation soon to confront us. Will there be another series ot contract lettings followed by sub-letting down to the. poor simpleton who does th or work, _ thp contractors meanwhile hieing them off to Florida or some such place, or sniffing the nice salt breezes somewhere'else , to the tune of “what a good boy am I**? Well, It had to come to some form of control. As long as busi­ ness men make greed their motto rather than service, we’re bound to .pay sweetly for our lack of -good sense and sound conscience. A * great statesman, more than three thousand years ago gave his people this principle: “Be sure your sin will find you. out.” Business seems keen to cut the rod that smites its own back. Selfishness always defeats its. own plans. That is as. certain as death. * When conscience goes out of the door, high costs come in at the window. We have pulled down this costly mess about our own ears. The pied piper of greedy business has led us a merry dance. Those five thousand workers referred to testify against bur capacity to carry on .business In the light of the Golden Rule. TWO-YEAR TERMS ARE GIVEN TO TRIO FOR THEFT OF CAR Judge T* M. Costello, of Goderich, sentenced the three Windsor youtljs, Eugene Rousseau, Bernard St. Den­ nis and Orville Westfall/ to 3t, John's Industrial School, Toronto, for two. years definite and fox* an in­ definite term to depend on their conduct but not to run after they attain their majority. The boys, all under sixteen, had pleaded guilty to car theft and rob­ bery, in the juvenile court, and to two charges of escape from-, ‘prison by violence and assault causing bodily harm. On October G last, while on re­ mand awaiting sentence, they made their escape from the Goderich jail after assaulting the governor, J. B, Reynolds, After a sensational chase they were re-captured. ' Counsel Asked for Leniency The boys were accompanied to the court by their fathers and were represented by E.„ C. Aurie, K.C., and JPaul Martin, K.C., both of Windsor, who entered pleas for leniency. Both counsel blamed bad companionship, late hours, and ra­ dio programs which they claimed might have suggested the jail break. The families, they pointed out, are highly respected. Crown Attorney D. E, Holmes said he could npt agree tp a sus­ pended sentence, but he agreed with what defence counsel had said, and did not wish to sep them sent to penitentiary. A term of 14 ye'ars could be given. Judge Advises Boys Before passing sentence Judge Costello spoke to tlie boys, and pointed out that they could have reached the peak of their best in ■the athletic field, and that the at­ tack on the jailer was cowardly. All were of good family and not bred to be criminals. He advised them to take advantage of the op­ portunity which will be theirs to rehabilitate themselves in society. T suppose, if I let you go scot- free you would never come back again, nor offend against the laws, of your country. However,” the judge continued, “there must be punishment. You have been lucky in your .choice of counsel. “You boys are under 16 years, belong to the same church, and so will be sent to the6 same institution where you can learn a trade. Re­solve to | get all the good you can out of i$ You can nofr buck author­ ity.” hr War Savwisrs ■■■ CHARLES FITZGERALD DIES AT- GRANTON Charles Talbot Fitzgerald died at his home in Granton in 'his 74th year, He was born and lived in this district all his life. He was a member of the Granton United Church. Surviving are one son, George, of London Township; two daughters, Mrs, E. B. Somerville and Mrs. R, M. Somerville, of Blanshard T-ownship; one brother, John C. Fitzgerald, —.... ST. JOSEPH AIRPORT The work of grading for the emer­ gency landing field at St, Joseph is under way but weather conditions have interfered with the progress of the work. About five hundred acres of land are being used for the purpose and include the farms on the 14th concession of Hay owned by Hy, Schilbe, H. Rose, Nelson Masse and T. Ayotte, Some of the higher buildings in the vicinity will be lowered. ■---------V--------- HENRY VOLLAND DIES 1 AT HOME NEAR DASHWOOD Henry Volland passed away at his residence on Concession 12, lot 20, in Hay township, pn Monday, October 20th. Mr. Volland had been in ailing health with a heart condition and has been ill for the last three weeks. He was. born in Zuricih and was. in his 82nd year. He is survived by his wife, nee .Florence Benedict; one daughter, Mrs. Catherine Ayotte, of Sarnia; a sister, Carolina Volland, Zurich; and one brother, Conrad Volland, of Hensall. A private funeral ser­ vice took place at th© residence on Thursday, October 23, at 2 p.m., conducted by Rev. E. Tuerkheim, of St. Peter’s Lutheran '’Church. Interment was in St. Peter’s Luth­ eran cemetery, Zurich. KERSLAKE-McLACHLAN A profusion of dahlias made a lovely setting at the home of hfr. and Mrs, Andrew McLachlan, Cru- marty, Wednesday, October :22nd, for the marriage of their daughter, Grace Hamilton, to William Carter Kerslake, elder son of Mr. and Mrs. Walton Kersiake, of Cromarty. Rev. J, Jamieson, of Knox Presbyterian Church, Cromarty, officiated and the wedding music was played by Mrs. Kenneth McKellar. The bride, given in marriage by her father, wore a floor-length frock of white net ovex* taffeta, with full skirt and bodice of white lace fashioned with, long pointed sleeves, small turned, down collar and buttons to the waistline. Her finger-tip veil was of white net and her bouquet of pink roses. Her bridesmaid, Miss Christina McKaig, of 'Cromarty, wore a floor-length frock of blue taffeta with full skirt, short puffed, sleeves and -buttons to the Waist. She carried pink and white carna­ tions. James Hoggarth, of Cro­ marty was groomsman. Following the ceremony 25 guests sat down to a wedding dinner. For the wedding trip the bride wore a smart dress of wine -crepe, black coat, win© hat and black accessories. Mr, and Mrs. Kersiake will reside in Strat­ ford. Our Town is at War i O Men are drilling in our town . . . our own men ;; ; men we call by their First names. Some of them quit good jobs to join the army i . some quit school. When the Empire went to war and Canada went to war. . . this town * went to war. Every now and then a few more men from this tdwn leave for active service. We’re taking the war , more seriously. Are we? Are we. all? Are those of us, who haven’t joined up doing all we can? Are we lending all we can? That’s one thing we can all do , . . one thing we must all do. We must all buy more War Savings Certificates. The help of every Canadian is needed ’ Victory. In these days of war the thoughtless} selfish spender is a traitor io our war effort? A reduction in personal spending is now a vital necessity to relieve the pressure for goods; to enable more and more labour and materials to be diverted to winning the war. The albout effort; Which Canada tnust nlakerf demands this self-denial of each of Us; SUPPORT THE WAR WEAPONS PRIVE IN YOUR COMMUNITY JPiiblish^d by th^ If ar Savings CornmitteV, Ottawa